Through conventional technologies, biological material may be screened for biological components, such as cells, antibodies, proteins, peptides, and nucleic acids. However, a number of challenges in the identification, isolation and characterization of biological components still remain. For example, some devices and methods require multiple, time-consuming selection steps. Additionally, some devices and methods fail to prevent sample contamination, fail to accurately detect multiple positive signals, fail to isolate viable cells, fail to detect cells, and fail to differentiate a single cell from multiple cells. Some devices and methods are also limited in the number of cells that can be screened with reasonable expediency.
Accordingly, there is a current need in the art for new methods and apparatuses for identifying, isolating, sorting and characterizing biological material, in particular cellular material. The present disclosure addresses this deficiency with new methods and apparatuses for sorting viable cellular material as well as other target particles.